St. Therese

Thank you for all your encouragement on this piece. Judy S. asked about the transfer. There are two kinds of transfer sheets that are readily available at fabric stores. One kind is specially treated white or light colored fabric that you run through your printer. When you peel off the backing you have an image printed directly on plain fabric that feels and drapes like regular fabric.

The medium I used here is the other kind of transfer. You run the sheet through your printer and you get an iron-on transfer (you have to remember to reverse the image before you print because the transfer is a mirror image of your original). I like these transfers because you can apply them to any fabric, and I like the effect of combining them with different prints. These transfers, however, add what is essentially a layer of plastic to your fabric, so they are stiff and don't drape. Embroidering over this transfer requires a bit of special handling. Because the needle leaves tiny holes, I probably can't rip anything out without marring the image. I also can't use a hoop, which would probably leave a crease.
I'm embroidering over some of the original images on both the hankie and the dishtowel. I've added iron-on interfacing to stabilize the towel, and I'm embroidering the hankie through a piece of white cotton because the hankie is very thin. When I'm done with this, I will add embellishments, including silk ribbon embroidery, which I'll add over the white flowers in the hankie.
I'm almost done with this part of the embroidery. Here are a few pictures of the parts of the dishtowel that I've embroidered.
These close-ups are a bit deceiving. When you stand in front of the dishtowel, the embroidery is barely perceptible.
I'm hoping that the viewer will be drawn to this piece by the embellishments, and that the embroidered prints of both textiles will be noticed after closer examination.